Institute for Justice

August 2017, Volume 26, Issue 4

This is an exciting issue of Liberty & Law for school choice. We are pleased to report four different victories for choice, starting with our sweeping victory before the Georgia Supreme Court, which continues our unbroken winning streak on every tax credit case IJ has litigated. In this case, the court unanimously held that the…

IJ supporters may already be familiar with certificate-of-need (CON) laws, which essentially amount to a government permission slip to compete. IJ takes on these laws in the transportation and vending industries, where they stifle competition by allowing existing businesses to veto the opening of new businesses near them. But, as IJ client Dr. Lee Birchansky…

The Derby City may embrace competition on the horse track, but Louisville, Kentucky, is betting against food trucks by using government power to give a leg up to its favorite brick-and-mortar businesses. That is why IJ teamed up with two Louisville food truck entrepreneurs to challenge the city’s anticompetitive 150-foot proximity ban. This case is…

Big news out of San Diego! In May, a court ordered the District Attorney’s Office to return every last penny of the more than $100,000 it seized from the Slatic family using civil forfeiture. This important victory came after a 15-month battle before two different courts and three different judges. In the face of great…

Students may be taking a break from school this summer, but IJ’s fight for school choice knows no rest. That is OK with us, because we have results to show for it. On June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a major decision in Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer, which held that…

Wisconsin is now both freer and more delicious, thanks to IJ’s latest victory for economic liberty. On May 31, a Wisconsin trial court struck down the state’s ban on selling home-baked goods. The judge found the ban violated Wisconsinites’ constitutional right to earn an honest living because it did not genuinely protect the public. Instead…

Readers of Liberty & Law know that IJ stories are powerful because they are about real people who are motivated to fight government abuse—not simply to improve their own lives but also to secure freedom for others. One of the stories we are privileged to tell is that of Elfie Gallun, a longtime friend and…

Chicago street vendors are enjoying a victory that was more than eight years in the making. In 2009, the leaders of the city’s vendors’ association read our study on the Windy City’s licensing laws called Regulatory Field: Home of Chicago’s Laws and contacted author and IJ Clinic on Entrepreneurship Director Beth Kregor. The vendors’ representatives…

Earlier this year, IJ sued the city of Charlestown, Indiana, because the residents of the Pleasant Ridge neighborhood have spent the last three years on the chopping block. Their mayor, Bob Hall, has made it his personal mission to bulldoze this entire working-class neighborhood—full of modest but much-loved and well-kept homes—so a private developer can…

In May, IJ chairman of the board and co-founder Chip Mellor gave the 2017 commencement speech at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. In his speech, “The Opportunity Cost of Inertia,” Mellor told the graduates not to give up on their dreams because they face long odds: When we started the Institute…

The victories keep on rolling for IJ’s school choice litigation! In May, IJ scored a big win for Montana families when a district court ruled that the Montana Department of Revenue made a “mistake of law” when it tried to exclude students attending religious schools from the state’s school choice program. The program is now…